Does Windows XP SP2 really make computers more secure?

Let's talk about security of pc users and mainly Windows users today. It's been a while since I wanted to approach the subject, but couldn't do so without testing a few things for myself. So, like me, you've probably been incited by Microsoft everytime you visit their website to install SP2. I upgraded my Windows operating system to SP2 about 4 months ago. During those 4 months, I've experienced quite some improvement and feel better about using Windows now. Now that you've gotten the background, let's get back to the real question of whether WndowsXP SP2 really makes your computer more secure.

I was quite nervous about upgrading, but since I've done it, I can assure you that I haven't seen Windows XP being so stable and felt so confident about using it. What does SP2 bring to your computer?

• Well first of all and most importantly it delivers an improved and amazingly performance-enhanced firewall. For those who have been using Windows XP since it first came out, you would have seen that all that the "so-called" firewall had to offer was just "an internet connection monitor". The user had no clue whether it really worked and what "monitoring" really went on. With the enhancements brought by SP2, the user has a great decision flexibility: he can decided what software was allowed to connect to the internet, what services could be run and most importantly, the user is notified whenever a software or application he just installed tries to modify port settings and go out on the Internet.
• Second, a few Internet Explorer enhancements. Although security-wise there was been some enhancements with many security holes being patched (thanks God!), I am mostly pleased with the fact that SP2 delivers in IE a very robust popup-blocker as well as new ways to handle downloaded content and ActiveX objects.
• Third there are a few other things but I don't think those are of interest to people like my mom who just want to put their computers on and get their jobs done.
  

So, does SP2 make windows more secure? Certainly does. But there is still much work to be done. Some of these things would be for example being able to secure the Windows registry: at this point, it is still too easy for malicious applications to change settings in the Windows registry. For security minded people, it's a nightmare because every night before switching computers off, we have to run scan, we have to monitor any strange behavior on our computer throughout the day and pay attention to specific things like processes that are running, sudden change in the speed of running tasks, etc...

I hope that future versions of Windows workstation Operating Systems will actually allow us to concentrate on our day to day jobs instead of spending 45% of that time worrying whether our computer is sending out information without us having a clue what's going on.